Hosea 13:2

Relentless Judgment on Israel

1 When Ephraim spoke, trembling,
He exalted himself in Israel;
But when he offended through Baal worship, he died.

2 Now they sin more and more,
And have made for themselves molded images,
Idols of their silver, according to their skill;
All of it is the work of craftsmen.
They say of them,
“Let¹ the men who sacrifice kiss the calves!”

3 Therefore they shall be like the morning cloud
And like the early dew that passes away,
^aLike chaff blown off from a threshing floor
And like smoke from a chimney.

4 “Yet ^aI am the Lord your God
Ever since the land of Egypt,
And you shall know no God but Me;
For ^bthere is no savior besides Me.

Commentaries:

Adam Clarke

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Hosea 13:2

And now they sin more and more - They increase in every kind of vice, having abandoned the great Inspirer of virtue.

Let the men that sacrifice kiss the calves - This was the test. If there be a Jew that pretends to sacrifice, and whose conversion is dubious, let him come openly and kiss the calves. This will show what he is; no real Jew will do this. If he be an idolater, he will not scruple. This was the ancient method of adoration.

1.They kissed the idol.

2.When the statue was too high or too far off, they presented the hand, in token of alliance.

3.They brought that hand respectfully to their mouths, and kissed it.

This was the genuine act of adoration; from AD , to, and os, oris , the mouth. So Pliny, Hist. Nat., lib. xxviii., c. 1. Adorando, dexteram AD oscula referimus .

And Apuleius, Asin., lib. iv:

\ri720 Admoventes oribus suis dexteram, ut ipsam prorsus deam religiosis adorationibus venerabantur .

See Calmet, and see the note on Job 31:17.

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